I often have a jar of this in the fridge and I have used it to liven up everything from dhall to a grilled eggplant salad. In our house we have a six year old who does not eat chilli, a four year old who likes a little and grown ups who love the stuff. This way, you cook one meal and everyone can add Sambal to adjust it to their level of heat.

We are fortunate enough to have access to really good vine ripened tomatoes from the local farmer’s market in Byron Bay. The reason I’m telling you this is I’ve tried making this with ordinary not too special tomatoes from the supermarket and found the Sambal lacked flavour.

This is not a strict recipe as I’ve adapted it to how we like it, feel free to adjust the quantity of ingredients to suit your taste.

Ingredients:

• 500g ripe tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 10 birds eye chillies
• 1tsp salt
• 1tbsp sugar
• 1tbsp shrimp paste
• 60ml vegetable oil

Method:

1. Put everything but the oil into a food processor or blender, blend until you have a thick-ish sauce.
2. Heat oil in a pan, I find a high sided pan useful in keeping the spitting contents inside. When the oil is hot (not smoking) stand back and gingerly tip the liquidated stuff in.
3. Turn the heat down to maintain a rolling bubble and stir continously for ten minutes. Don’t be tempted to walk away as you don’t want this to burn.
4. You’ll know it’s ready when the oil separates and rises to the top.
5. Put in a sterilised jar, it will keep in the fridge for about a week.

Warning

I do have to warn you that whilst this is cooking, it is advisable to open windows and doors. It is very likely that other members of the house will wander into the kitchen and go, “Phew, WHAT is that smell?” All I can say is raw shrimp paste is very different to how it tastes cooked in a dish. Everytime I make this, which is pretty regularly, Nick will complain about the smell but oddly silent when he’s liberally dousing his food with it.